302 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Feb. 7,

of our compliments, she added sweeter and sweeter strains,
till at last, as if memory was busy with the past, she warbled
forth with deepest pathos one of the choicest melodies.

Your committee indulge in no extravagant eulogy when
we say, that throughout the entire building there is scarcely
aught to remind you that you walk midst minds dethroned,
or gaze on creatures of unsettled intellect. As if to hasten
the dawn of returning reason, every room is hung with
paintings, and, along the lengthened avenues, engravings of
some pleasing scenes adorn the walls to fix the attention, in
the lucid intervals, and tempt the erring mind back to her
deserted throne. True, as you walk along, some melan-
cholly visages stare vacantly, as if they wondered why you
broke the surrounding stillness, but in another moment they
seem to look so intelligently, and with so intense a curiosity
on those who enter their little circle, that you almost doubt
their sad insanity. Such was the general condition of all
the inmates, with the exception of some four or five, whose
arms were gently pinioned, and even these, were it not for
the peculiar garments that encircled their limbs, you would
suppose were resting voluntarily with folded arms. All the
revolting scenes of forced subjection, of dreary confinement
in the solitary cell, of cruel binding to the wretched couch,
all wild and startling shrieks that one expects to meet as the
terrible accompaniments of the insane abode, were wanting
in this charitable asylum. Indeed, from the mild aspect of
the major portion of the inmates, from the neat and tidy
chambers, from the calm stillness that dwelt within the walls,
from the parlors luxuriously adorned, we lost sight of all the
anticipated scenes of woe, of wildest discord, and of startling
cry, and fancied that we trod the decorated galleries of some
favored child of wealth.

In the male department, equal astonishment met your com-
mittee at every step. The same order, the same comfort, the
same freedom from restraint, and the same kind treatment
were everywhere visible. One solitary instance of apparent
restraint presented itself, in the person of an athletic young
man, who, with arms confined, and fettered feet, followed us
from room to room, earnestly requesting our interposition for
release. It was amusing to us, who had learned from the
physicians his strong propensity to use without consideration
or much courtesy to companions his lower limbs, to observe
the subtle cunning with which he reasoned with his keeper
to tempt him by the most urgent solicitations and feigned
surprise at his condition to release him from the mild re-
straint ; nor could we suppress the smile at the resigned and
vanquished appearance with which he acknowledged his in-
effectual attempt to deceive his kind and intelligent guar-
dians.